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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507958">Life</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadinderry/pseuds/deadinderry'>deadinderry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Long Walk - Richard Bachman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>mostly just they walk and complain, some implied mcvries/garraty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:46:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>842</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507958</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadinderry/pseuds/deadinderry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a fine line, between being Collie Parker’s friend and being, if not his enemy, someone he looks at with all the disdain in the world, but if there’s someone who’s found it on this godforsaken walk, Abraham thinks it might be him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i have never posted any long walk fic over here, i made up a ton of the ff.net archive for it, but hey, i recently reread the book, have some parker and abraham</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a fine line, between being Collie Parker’s friend and being, if not his enemy, someone he looks at with all the disdain in the world, but if there’s someone who’s found it on this godforsaken walk, Abraham thinks it might be him. Sure, Parker seems to be all right with, like, <em>Baker</em>, but that’s because Baker appears generally likable. Abraham thinks that there’s probably something behind the soft-spoken Southern accent, and it’s probably something dark, because there is no way that anyone’s <em>that </em>perfect, but either way—</p>
<p>Abraham’s pretty sure that he’s got Parker figured out. Abraham had friends like Parker before this, and if he’d never showed up here (because even if Abraham once thought he had a chance, now he’s pretty sure that it’s going to be Parker), he would’ve had friends like Parker later, too. Parker is a big swaggering douche, but he’s got a heart underneath it all. Abraham knows he’s got a heart because that first night, Parker told Abraham stories. Stories about watching after his younger sister, stories about his older brother getting in trouble with the law. Middle child, Parker is to a T. These stories that Parker and them are telling are all weird and foreign to Abraham, who is pretty sure that he’s had a normal life: mom and dad, both all right if a little lame sometimes, friends, girlfriend, shitty minimum wage job, but no real struggles.</p>
<p>Nothing <em>real </em>has ever happened to him since this walk.</p>
<p>He mentioned this to Parker at about three in the morning on day two, and Parker looked at him and snorted: “What the fuck did you think it was, then, if it wasn’t real? A fuckin’ fairy tale?”</p>
<p>“No, you don’t get it,” Abraham said. “I mean—”</p>
<p>“I know what you mean, and I do get it,” Parker said. “Abe, just because you didn’t grow up in abject poverty like Art or get your face all fucked up like McVries over there doesn’t mean you didn’t have a life. Chrissakes, man, just because you had a good life doesn’t mean it wasn’t a life, it just means you’re fuckin’ dumb for coming on this walk, you know?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t really like, plan to,” Abraham said, even though words like ‘dumb’ are probably why he had the impulse to go for it. Abraham has always lived on impulse, and as a result has lived with a reputation of someone with no real plans or direction. Which is true, if a little irritating.</p>
<p>“Which makes you dumber,” Parker said. “But it don’t mean you didn’t have a fuckin’ life. Christ, Abe.” They’re quiet for a couple minutes. “What’s your first name? Don’t think you’ve said it. You can make a nickname easy enough outta your last.”</p>
<p>“James,” Abraham said. “But everyone pretty much called me Abe back home, too. Apart from my girlfriend, I guess.”</p>
<p>“What was she like? Like, a steady girl, right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Abraham said. He thinks about Bobbie and grins, a little. She was just like him, only a girl. “Abraham with a vagina, that was her.”</p>
<p>“Christ, I bet you were a pair,” Parker said.</p>
<p>“Oh, we de<em>light</em>ed in grossing people out,” Abraham said. “She thought it was a joke when I applied, and maybe I kinda did, too. Especially when I got the letter back saying I got in.”</p>
<p>“And so you’re here on a joke.”</p>
<p>“And to prove I could do it,” Abraham said. He shrugged. “And look at me, here I am. Walking.”</p>
<p>“And here you’ll probably fuckin’ die. It’s gonna be the gaylords over there, you know, they’re gonna be the last two and it’ll be some stupid-ass, we can’t kill both of you because of the power of <em>love </em>or something, and all of us will be looking down at them and being like, well, what the fuck, if all it took for us to survive as a pair was to suck some dick, fuck, I’ll suck a dick.”</p>
<p>Abraham snorted. “Anyone’s? What if your perfect pair is like, Barkovitch, or something?”</p>
<p>Parker muttered something that Abraham couldn’t hear, and then he shook his head. “Your pair’s our former night rider, then.”</p>
<p>“Who?”</p>
<p>Parker pointed—and hell if Abe wasn’t right, there was something hiding behind that soft-spoken Southern accent.</p>
<p>“How’d you learn about that one?”</p>
<p>“He was feeling bad, spilling his guts. Said he got out a couple years ago, when he was fourteen, but still. Looks and acts all cute, but there’s something kinda sinister under there. Boy was made for the dead and dying.”</p>
<p>Abraham shuddered, a little, and glances around. It hits him how many of these people have had shitty fucking lives, and there he is, doing this almost as a practical joke, doing this on almost nothing more than a dare—</p>
<p>And this is his big life experience.</p>
<p>“Shit,” Abraham muttered. He blew out a long breath, watching gingery bangs flutter away from his eyes for a second. “I shoulda got a haircut before coming on this bullshit walk."</p>
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